Gary Hurley is poised to follow up last week’s runner-up finish in Cadiz with another excellent week’s showing at the Kaskáda Golf Challenge in the Czech Republic.
The Waterford man heads into the weekend in seventh place and just five shots back after following his opening 66 with a second-round 68 to sit on -8 overall.
Two early birdies were cancelled out by bogeys on the 18th and fourth holes, but he rallied to birdie three of the final five and after storming up the board on Sunday last week, his confidence levels are high and knows that he can continue to post good numbers over the weekend.
“Very pleased with my game,” he said afterwards. “To be honest, I’m very pleased with where I’m at with everything, to be honest. Mentally, physically, everything.
“I made some changes the last few weeks with my performance coach, my technical coach, just a different approach to the swing and different approach to how I move, trying to bring the game out of me rather than trying to put something in if that makes sense, and it seems to be working so far.
“So it’s a lot lighter on the course in my mind as well, a lot lighter with myself, less feeling of need to get something right on the range or anything like that, as long as I’m mentally ready to go, I’m good.”
He’s five shots off the lead, but just three off second so he knows that he is capable of getting into contention again with the way he’s playing.
“I’m what, five shots back going into the weekend? That’s not bad. You know, we’ll see how we go. There’s a lot of chances out there if I keep playing the way I’m playing, so I hope to give myself a chance again.”
Hurley is joined at the weekend by Conor Purcell who carded a three-under 68, the highlight of which was an eagle-three at the ninth, and Ronan Mullarney, who features at the weekend for just the second time in his rookie Challenge Tour season.
The Galway man will be a little disappointed not to be in a much stronger position, however, as his opening three-under tally had been improved to -6 after 10 holes before two bogeys and a double on the way home saw him slip back to -2 and into a tie for 55th.
Daniel Mulligan and Mark Power both missed out by two strokes, and Alex Maguire was one further back on +1. John Murphy withdrew after round one after a testing opening round.
Jannik de Bruyn will take a two-stroke lead into the weekend at Golf Resort Kaskáda after impressing for a second successive day.
The German carded six birdies and a solitary bogey on his way to a five under par round of 66 and reach 13 under par for the week, two shots clear of Spaniard David Borda and South African Robin Williams who share second.